Monday 12 June 2006

Translated into Portuguese

In March of this year, Vitor Alevato, a teacher of English literature at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, contacted me to ask whether he might use some of my poems in his course. I agreed heartily, and while students have been reading poems of mine in English, Vitor has translated one of my poems into Portuguese. I'll give it first in English then his translation. It originally appeared in the TLS.

I'm very grateful to Vitor both for his translation and for his allowing me to publish it here.

The World at Dusk


Along the lanes, in the emerging day,
a body in the world is a body
on an errand. The aching calf
knows the passage of time.

Injury once left me long
on the window’s warmer side, gazing
at the snow blown through
the poplars’ leafless branches.

All day, each day, the world was at dusk,
the change of light incidental.
When at last I walked to the postbox, afternoon
was everywhere. I had decades to live.


Mundo em crepúsculo


Ao longo da alameda, no dia nascente,
um corpo no mundo é um corpo
em missão. Pernas cansadas
conhecem o passar do tempo.

A injúria me deixou
do lado mais quente da janela, a olhar
a neve que se movia
nos galhos nus dos álamos.

Todo dia, cada dia, o mundo era crepúsculo,
a mudança de luz incidental.
Quando por fim eu fui à caixa de correio, a tarde
estava em todo lugar. Eu tinha décadas para viver.


1 comment:

  1. Anonymous2:19 pm

    Hello Carrie! I'm very happy for having the possibility of being in touch with you. I'm a student of Vitor Alevato (UFRJ- Brazil/Rio de Janeiro)and I've chosen to write an essay based on the poem he translated to us. Although I feel keenly interested in this work, I don't have enough material to help me in this task. Could you help me in my analysis? May I get in touch with you by email? Since now, thank you very much. My name is Rafaela, and my email is rafamra@yahoo.ca

    ReplyDelete